Menagerie Young Writers’ Workshop

Menagerie Theatre is a leading new writing theatre company based at Cambridge Junction. We seek out, support and nurture playwrights to produce exciting, new and original work.

The Young Writers’ Workshop is our flagship development programme for writers aged 18 – 30, living in the East of England and around Cambridge. This project is led by Menagerie's Co-Artistic Director, Patrick Morris and has been running for 9 years in 2025.

Previous participants have gone on to… 

  • Win the Bruntwood Prize Judges’ Award

  • Write for broadcast on BBC TV and Radio

  • Be nominated for an ‘Offie’

  • Be shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award at Soho Theatre

  • Have work produced by Theatre503, Park Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and more

  • Found their own company and toured work nationally

  • Gain literary representation

  • Teach professionally at university level

Young Writers’ 2025 Cohort

Our complete Young Writers cohort for 2025 are;

Zara Azam, Grace Bartle, Whitney Glover, Sarah Saxby, Phoebe Segal, Aisling Towl, and Sophie Underwood.

We have been working with our Young Writers since January 2025 to develop 7 new and exciting one act plays. This has been done through fortnightly in person sessions, online 1:1s, Guest Writer led sessions, and regular group feedback. Our final in person session was on March 15th, and was led by Winsome Pinnock.

Since then, we had our Young Writers’ Showcase at which this years cohort had an extract of their plays performed in rehearsed readings. Using valuable audience feedback from the showcase to develop their work further, our writers submitted the final versions of their plays at the end of May 2025, concluding the 2025 programme.

The 7 one act plays they produced are;

Calcutta by Zara Azam

Delirous Mind by Grace Bartle

Big Fat Dating Show by Whitney Glover

12 Sleepless Nights by Sarah Saxby

Nude by Phoebe Segal

Don Jon in Barcelona by Aisling Towl

Choose Your Own Adventure by Sophie Underwood

2025 Guest Writers 2025:

  • Winsome is an award-winning writer for stage, radio, film and television. She is currently under commission to the National Theatre, Headlong Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Royal Court and the Unicorn Theatre.

    Theatre includes: ROCKETS AND BLUE LIGHTS (National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange & BBC Radio 3); ONE UNDER (Graeae Theatre Company/UK Tour, Kiln Theatre); LEAVE TAKING (Bush Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse & National Theatre); GLUTATHIONE (Young Vic Theatre); THE PRINCIPLES OF CARTOGRAPHY (Bush Theatre); TITUBA (Hampstead Theatre); CLEANING UP (Clean Break) and more.

  • Sarah Woods is an award-winning writer and creative systems thinker. She’s currently a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, where she’s working on the project People & Patterns: Transforming the ways we think and connect when everything is at risk. With Emily Lethbridge (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies), she has just been awarded a 3-year Icelandic research grant for Kvennaspor: Unearthing and Foregrounding Women in Icelandic Saga Landscapes. She’s founder of Artists In Exile, supporting artists to find refuge in the UK.

  • Andrew is an eco-dramaturg, a playwright, a teacher, a theatre director and a writing coach. He teaches Eco-Theatre, Writing for Radio and Theatre & Performance at the University of Essex where he also completed a PhD in Theatre Studies in 2023.

    Andrew's play, 'The Twin', adapted for the stage from Gerband Bakker's Dutch novel of the same name, received a rehearsed reading at the TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association) Conference at the University of Essex in 2022.

(From left to right) Grace Bartle, Sarah Saxby, Phoebe Segal, Zara Azam, Aisling Towl, Sophie Underwood, Whitney Glover.

Young Writers’ 2024 Cohort

Our complete Young Writers cohort for 2024 were; Susanna Wolff, Jenny Wall, Katie Smith, Emma Pallett, Ruth Mestel, Erin Hutton, Stan Gordon, and Louis Catliff.

Our Guest Writers included:

  • Winsome is an award-winning writer for stage, radio, film and television. She is currently under commission to the National Theatre, Headlong Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Royal Court and the Unicorn Theatre.

    Theatre includes: ROCKETS AND BLUE LIGHTS (National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange & BBC Radio 3); ONE UNDER (Graeae Theatre Company/UK Tour, Kiln Theatre); LEAVE TAKING (Bush Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse & National Theatre); GLUTATHIONE (Young Vic Theatre); THE PRINCIPLES OF CARTOGRAPHY (Bush Theatre); TITUBA (Hampstead Theatre); CLEANING UP (Clean Break) and more.

  • Martha Loader is a playwright, actor and producer from Ipswich. Previous work has been presented by HighTide, Mercury Theatre, Menagerie Theatre Company, and INK. She is an associate artist of the New Wolsey Theatre, has been commissioned by Menagerie, and by the Almeida Theatre as part of their ‘Genesis New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme’. Her play BINDWEED won the Judges Award at the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2022 and will tour in 2024.

  • Tim Foley is a writer based in Manchester. His play ELECTRIC ROSARY won the 2017 Bruntwood Prize Judges’ Award. His most recent play, DRIFTWOOD, has recently been produced by Pentabus Theatre for a national tour. Tim’s first full-length play, THE DOGS OF WAR, premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in May 2015 and won the 2016 OffWestEnd award for Most Promising New Playwright. He was awarded the Channel 4 Playwright’s bursary in 2016. His second play, ASTRONAUTS OF HARTLEPOOL, premiered at the 2017 VAULT Festival and won the VAULT Origins Award for Outstanding New Work.

  • Sarah Woods is an award-winning writer and creative systems thinker. She’s currently a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, where she’s working on the project People & Patterns: Transforming the ways we think and connect when everything is at risk. With Emily Lethbridge (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies), she has just been awarded a 3-year Icelandic research grant for Kvennaspor: Unearthing and Foregrounding Women in Icelandic Saga Landscapes. She’s founder of Artists In Exile, supporting artists to find refuge in the UK.

Young Writers’ Hotbed 2024 Selection:

Totally Fine by Susanna Wolff

“In the last 2 weeks I have had ‘trouble relaxing’ strongly agree, agree, don’t know, disagree, strongly disagree.” But she just needs a break, a beach with no phone and no clients for a week or maybe 6. This is all just a blip, a mistake, a few mistakes. She’s fine, she’s good, great, 100% completely totally fine...

Totally Fine is a play about connection, or lack of it. Talking and being listened to. Existing in the murky place between happiness and despair.

Justine Stops Oil by Louis Catliff

When Justine’s daughter leaves home, her cosy bubble is violently burst. Faced with a dying marriage and rising dread, Justine searches for meaning and finds it in a group of activists protesting oil and pissing everybody off.

Justine Stops Oil is a funny and fast-paced exploration of apathy and activism, rage and hope. It asks what does it take to get people out on the street and what would we be willing to sacrifice for change?

You Forget Yourself by Jenny Wall

Out on the coast, the Victorian sea cure is in full flow. Lacking sleep, appetite, or happiness? Saltwater and simpler living can save you. Between embroidery, bedrest, and submerging themselves daily in the ocean, healing for the women at the Albatross Guesthouse is surely almost certain.

But when a new visitor arrives with the tide, talking about a changing outside world and disputing the effectiveness of the sea cure, everything — and everyone — is thrown into disorder.

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